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Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur –

Final Score/Result: Man City 6-0 Tottenham

Man Of The Match: Jesus Navas

Manchester City make a statement of intent as they thrash Tottenham Hotspur 6-0 at home.

Manchester City have maintained their tremendous home form with a scintillating performance against a hapless Tottenham side. The Citizens have now scored 26 goals and maintained a 100% record in their six home matches so far. It was an important win after their loss to Sunderland in the last game, and if Manuel Pellegrini can sort out their away form, very few sides will be able to compete with them at the top.

This was a terrible result for Spurs and their second defeat in a row. Tottenham have now won just two of their last seven matches in the league and they have dropped down to 9th in the table. After a summer of heavy investment, the current scenario won’t please the board or the fans. Apart from the loss, Tottenham have now failed to score a goal in open play in their last four matches. The most positive thing to come out of Tottenham’s season so far has been their defensive grit, but worryingly for Andre Villas Boas, the back-four was taken to cleaners by Manchester City in this game, and in truth they could have scored more. This was the biggest defeat in Andre Villas Boas’ career so far.

The match started in a disastrous fashion for Spurs as Lloris gifted the opening goal on a platter with his poor clearance. The Frenchman saved Sergio Aguero’s initial effort and the parried it towards Jesus Navas on the right. The Spaniard wonderfully lifted the ball over Lloris and into the back of the net from a tight angle.

Manchester doubled their lead in the 34th minute of the match. The move once again started from a poor clearance by Lloris and Aguero’s initial shot was saved by him. But the rebound fell kindly for Negredo inside the box. His shot of blocked on the line, but the ball deflected of Sandro and went into the back of the net.

City’s third goal came just seven minutes after this event as Jesus Navas made a wonderful run down the right and found Aguero inside the box with low cross. The Argentina international guided it to the back of the net to score his first of the game.

The second half spanned out like the first half with Manchester City dominating possession and looking lethal in attack. It seemed as if the home side could score every time they move forward. In the 50th minute Sergio Aguero completed his brace as Yaya Toure made a wonderful run through the center of park and set up the Argentine international in front of the goal. Aguero could have hardly missed from there. Just five minutes after this goal, Manchester City scored their fifth as Negredo made a wonderful turn to leave Dawson for dead and finished with aplomb past Lloris. Andre Villas Boas at this point was looking for damage limitation and brought on Dembele and Sigurdsson in place of Soldado and Paulinho.

Manchester created many more chances, but failed to convert them. Fernandinho missed a sitter in front of the goal, while Toure failed to hit the target after wonderful move. But City did managed to grab their sixth as Jesus Navas completed his much deserved brace. Milner set him up with a lovely ball over the top and Vertonghen failed to control the ball, after that it was down to Navas’ calmness to finish past Lloris.

Manuel Pellegrini was delighted with the win and his side’s performance in this game.

“It’s impossible to play better than that.

“Away, we don’t play so different, but it’s different things like a mistake or bad luck, so we don’t have all the points we deserve away.

“Here at home, the team not only plays, but scores all the chances, and that’s very important.

“I really think we play exactly the same when we play away. Maybe the teams at home are more difficult than when we come here.

Villas Boas hoped that his side can bounce back immediately from this result and pointed out that the team’s problem is not creating chances, but finishing them.

“The good thing is that, in the Premier League or in a top club, there’s always another game coming and another possibility to bounce back.

“We have a game on Thursday where we have to show that we are present, we are there and to continue to do our job.

“We have to see now the mistakes we made and reflect a little bit.

“We’ve created so many chances before, and it’s an ongoing conversation we have to make sure we have to finish up the chances.

“The team is capable of creating, it’s not finishing which is the situation right now.” – The Portuguese manager added.

Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur – Statistics

Jesus Navas produced arguably his best performance for Manchester City since joining the club in the summer. He scored the first with a wonderful cheap and set up Aguero for Manchester City’s third goal. The Spaniard completed his brace in the end as he ran onto a long pass from Milner and finished past Lloris. He was a constant threat down the right and created a lot of openings down that side. The above heat-map depicts his movement and positioning on the pitch during the game.